CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSES OFFERED IN ISRAEL

Mia Garlick, June 26th, 2005

Silicon-Valley-based NGO reinforces its activities around the globe and introduces its innovative copyright licenses in Israel

San Francisco, CA, USA and Berlin, GERMANY — June 9, 2005 — Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that provides an alternative to full copyright, today unveils a localized version of its innovative licensing system in Israel.

Creative Commons’ copyright licenses, which are available free of charge from the group’s website, allow authors and artists to mark their works as free to copy or transform under certain conditions—to declare “some rights reserved,” in contrast to the traditional “all rights reserved”—thereby enabling others to access a growing pool of raw materials without legal friction.

With Israel introducing a Creative Commons license tailored for the specifics of the legal system in Israel, the number of countries where Creative Commons’ tools and licenses are available rises to a total of 19. The organization already provides copyright licenses specific to Australian, Austrian, Brazilian, Belgian, Canadian, Croatian, Dutch, English & Welsh, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, U.S., Taiwanese and Spanish law, thanks to a global network of artists, lawyers, and technologists.

Staff at Creative Commons´offices in San Francisco and Berlin worked with Dr. Michael Birnhack, co-director of the Haifa Center of Law & Technology (HCTL) and Project Leads Elad Wieder and Ohad Mayblum of the HCTL to adapt the standardized licenses for use in Israel.

Today the licenses will be launched during a ceremony at the HCLT in the Faculty of Law, University of Haifa. As part of the event at the Hecht Auditorium, Professor Lawrence Lessig, Chairman & CEO of Creative Commons will give a live video-conference lecture. In addition, a variety of works by Israeli artists that are using Creative Commons licenses will be exhibited – a body of creative work free to share and build upon. “ We are very honored and excited to be collaborating with the Haifa Center of Law & Technology. Being able to offer our licenses in Israel, a country of great creativity and dynamism means a lot to our organization” said Professor Lawrence Lessig.

About The Haifa Center of Law & Technology

The Haifa Center of Law & Technology (HCLT) is a research center based at the Faculty of Law, University of Haifa, Israel. The HCLT promotes research in fields of Law & Technology, Intellectual Property, Information Law and related areas. The HCLT’s activities date back to 1999, and in 2003 it was approved as a University Center by the Haifa University authorities. HCLT conducts workshops and conferences, awards fellowships and holds writing competitions for students. HCLT cooperates with several leading institutions in Israel and elsewhere, including George Washington University Law School, WIPO, The Center of the Study of the Information Society and other institutions.

For general information, visit HCLT’s website

About Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation founded in 2001, Creative Commons promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works—whether owned or in the public domain—by empowering authors and audiences. It is sustained by the generous support of the Center for the Public Domain, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation.

For general information, visit Creative Commons’ website

Contact

Elad Wieder (Haifa)

Coordinator, Haifa Center of Law & Technology

Email

Neeru Paharia (San Francisco)
Executive Director, Creative Commons
Email

Press Kit

Leaders in Intellectual Property and Open Content from All Corners of the Globe Participating in Inaugural International Creative Commons Conference

Raul, June 24th, 2005

Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA—June 24, 2005

Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that provides flexible
copyright licenses for authors and artists, is holding a conference
at Harvard Law School over the coming weekend of June 25 and 26,
2005, for all of its international collaboration partners, who are
responsible for the legal ‘porting’ of the Creative Commons
licenses and building community around the licenses.

Representatives from 37 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia,
Australia, Europe, and the Middle East will be coming together to
discuss a wide range of topics, including the experience of the
Creative Commons’ collaboration partners in ‘porting’ the Creative
Commons licenses in their local jurisdiction and their experience
in terms of the local adoption of the Creative Commons licenses. In
addition, the conference will serve as a forum to discuss global
issues faced by Creative Commons and its collaboration partners
including moral rights and collecting societies.

Creative Commons began its internationalization project in 2003. To
date, Creative Commons licenses are available in 20 different
jurisdictions with another 11 jurisdictions actively in the process
of ‘porting.’ Porting involves translating the licenses
linguistically as well as legally so that the licenses are
customized for the requirements of the specific jurisdiction. In
total, Creative Commons is in talks with representatives from 70
different jurisdictions.

Christiane Asschenfeldt, Executive Director of iCommons, Creative
Commons’ legal porting project, said: “After two years of online
collaboration it will be great for all of us to eventually meet in
person to discuss the issues facing Creative Commons and our
experiences in implementing the licenses.”

Executive Director of Creative Commons’ international community
building project, Paula Le Dieu said: “This event marks the start
of Creative Commons as a truly international organization as it
gathers together for the first time the incredible group of people
that have been responsible for the growth and success of Creative
Commons as a global phenomenon.“

About Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation founded in 2001, Creative Commons promotes
the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works—whether
owned or in the public domain—by empowering authors and audiences.
It is sustained by the generous support of the Center for the
Public Domain, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
the Omidyar Network Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation.

For general information, visit Creative Commons

Contact

• Christiane Asschenfeldt (Berlin)
• christiane@creativecommons.org

• Paula Le Dieu (London)
• paula@creativecommons.org

Press Kit here

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‘Leaders of the Free World’ finally able to sing “Happy Birthday to You” to the Free Culture Movement after rights to song cleared

Raul, June 21st, 2005

San Francisco, USA, June 21, 2005:

Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that provides flexible
copyright licenses for authors and artists, released today its long-
awaited present to the Free Culture Movement, represented primarily
by FreeCulture.org, which celebrated its first birthday on April 23,
2005. The present is a recording of “Happy Birthday to You” by some
of the ‘leaders of the free world’–meaning some of the leaders in the
free culture, free software and open source software movements. The
present is now offered to the world from Creative Commons’ site in
exchange for donations to pay the licensing fees of 8.5 cents per
download, with the rest of the donations going to support the Free
Culture Movement.

The Free Culture Movement was formed at Swarthmore College,
Swarthmore, PA, by more than 100 students. These students were
organized by a group who sued Diebold and won, after Diebold sent a
cease and desist letter to the Swarthmore university administrator
alleging violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Faced
with such grave accusations, the university administrator shut down
the students’ website–that is, until they won the right to have it
reinstated. A year later, there are nine chapters across the country,
and more brewing around the world.

In keeping with tradition, Creative Commons wanted to sing “Happy
Birthday” to the Free Culture Movement and help the Free Culture
Movement on its way with donations by those supportive of its cause.
Because “Happy Birthday” is still under copyright, however, to do so,
Creative Commons needed to get a license.

The American Composers, Authors and Publishers directed Creative
Commons–because it wished to only make a single download–to Warner
Chappell Music. Warner, after discussing license terms and quoting an
applicable license fee, refused to grant a license and directed
Creative Commons to Harry Fox. Finally, through Harry Fox, Creative
Commons was able to obtain a license and sing “Happy Birthday” in
public to the Free Culture Movement, somewhat belatedly given the
delay in securing the necessary rights.

The song is now available for download and donations are welcome to
help cover the licensing fees and to assist the Free Culture Movement
click here. Performing the
song are the designated ‘leaders of the free world’–The Staff of
EFF”, Mitch Kapor, Dan Gillmor, Brian Behlendorf, Ian Clarke, Jimmy
Wales, Brewster Kahle, and Gigi Sohn.

About Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation founded in 2001, Creative Commons promotes
the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works–whether owned
or in the public domain–by empowering authors and audiences. It is
sustained by the generous support of the Center for the Public
Domain, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the
Omidyar Network Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation.

For general information, visit here

Contact

• Neeru Paharia
• Executive Director, Creative Commons
• neeru at creativecommons.org
• 415.946.3068

Press Kit here

openDemocracy’s Global Network of Writers Adopts Creative Commons Licenses

Raul, June 15th, 2005

San Francisco, USA & London, UK – June 14, 2005>

Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that provides flexible
copyright licenses for authors and artists, and openDemocracy.net, an
independent online magazine for debate about global politics, today unveiled a new
partnership to bring works by the world’s leading scholars and writers into the
global commons.

openDemocracy.net is the first online publisher of its size and caliber to adopt
Creative Commons licensing. Starting today, members of the public will be free to
republish most articles on the openDemocracy.net site in any non-commercial publication in
the world. “This move embodies the democratic values we champion,” says openDemocracy’s
editor Isabel Hilton.

Since 2001 openDemocracy.net has published more than 2,600 articles by
writers from around the world on issues relating to democracy, politics and
culture. Contributors include scholars, journalists, policymakers and
politicians. openDemocracy.net today released the work of 150 existing authors
under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license. All
future authors will be encouraged to publish their work under this new default
license, although they will also be free to opt for traditional “All rights
reserved” level of copyright, or an even more permissive Creative Commons
license instead.

Chairman & CEO of Creative Commons, Lawrence Lessig, said “It is exciting
that the important content published in openDemocracy will be able
to freely circulate around the globe and assist in spreading the ideas and
arguments of its contributors. Creative Commons is honored that openDemocracy
felt that Creative Commons licenses were suitable for this purpose.”

About openDemocracy.net

openDemocracy was founded in London in 2001. Its authors span the
globe, and include some of the most respected writers and scholars from across
the political spectrum. Past contributors include Todd Gitlin, Mary
Kaldor, Kofi Annan, Anne-Marie Slaughter, John le Carré, Ian McEwan, and Siva
Vaidhyanathan. Visit: opendemocracy

About Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation founded in 2001, Creative Commons promotes the
creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works—whether owned or
in the public domain—by empowering authors and audiences. It is sustained
by the generous support of the Center for the Public Domain, the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation.
For general information, visit Creative Commons

Contact

Solana Larsen, openDemocracy New York Editor +1 646 220-1459
solana.larsen@openDemocracy.net

Neeru Paharia, Creative Commons Executive Director +1 415 946-3068
neeru@creativecommons.org

Press Kit: here

Creative Commons and Science Commons Announce Open Access Law Program

Raul, June 6th, 2005

Creative Commons and Science Commons Announce Open Access Law Program

San Francisco & Boston, USA — June 6, 2005

Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that provides flexible
copyright licenses for authors and artists, and Science Commons, a
project of Creative Commons that works to encourage sharing of
scientific and academic knowledge, today unveiled their Open Access
Law Program. The Program is designed to make legal scholarship
“open access,” that is freely available online to everyone,
without undue copyright and licensing restrictions. The Open Access
Law Program is an initiative of the Science Commons Publishing
Project, which seeks to reduce the legal and logistical effort
involved in managing copyrighted scholarly publications.

As part of their Open Access Law Program, Creative Commons and
Science Commons are working with a large number of law journals to
encourage the open access archiving of the articles that they
publish. Science Commons has created a set of resources to promote
open access in legal publishing, including its Open Access Law
Journal Principles and an Open Access Law Model Publication
Agreement. The Principles and the Agreement encourage open access
to legal scholarship, by encouraging law journals to post their
published articles to the Internet, or allowing authors to do so.
They protect the basic interests of both journal and author by
ensuring that the journal is given a license to use the work, and
is always attributed as the place of first publication. Law
journals can adopt the Open Access Principles or can develop their
own policies consistent with the Principles. Journals can also
adopt the Science Commons Open Access Law Model Publication
Agreement as their standard agreement with all authors. Both
documents are available at the Science Commons’ Open Access Law
webpage

Staff at Science Commons’ offices in Boston worked with program
leads Professor Dan Hunter of the Wharton School, University of
Pennsylvania and Professor Mike Carroll of Villanova Law School,
who serves on the Board of Creative Commons, to produce the
Principles and the Agreement.

Professor Hunter said “Open access to law articles is an idea
whose time has come. All of the players in US scholarly legal
journal publishing have an interest in the widest possible audience
for their material. The authors benefit, the journals benefit, and
law schools benefit. And more importantly, the public benefits.
Everyone walks away a winner.”

Already 21 law reviews have adopted the Open Access Principles, or
have policies that are consistent with them. Leading journals such
as Animal Law, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Indiana Law
Journal, Lewis & Clark Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Michigan
State Law Review, New York Law School Law Review, Texas Law Review,
Vanderbilt Law Review, and Wayne Law Review have signed on, as have
all of the journals published by Duke Law School and Villanova Law
School.

Heidi Bond, the Executive Articles Editor of the Michigan Law
Review, one of the first journals to have policies consistent with
the Principles, said “Law reviews do not need to demand ownership
of their author’s manuscripts. We think our publication policies
should contribute to the free exchange of ideas among legal
academics. Open access policies make for happier authors and better
scholarship. After all, law review articles are like software:
they’re best when they’re free for others to learn from and build
on.”

Creative Commons became involved in supporting open access to law
scholarship through Professor Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law
professor and Chair of Creative Commons. In March this year he
signed away his copyright in an article to a law review and vowed
never to do it again. He has since thrown his weight behind efforts
to make legal scholarship open to all. Professor Lessig said “When
I drew my line in the sand, I knew of only one journal that was
open access. Today there are at least 21. I’m not sure that more
law review articles by me is a benefit to society, but at least
there are journals where I can publish and know that everyone can
read my work online, for free.”

Professor Lessig is the first signatory on the Open Access Law
Author Pledge, where law professors can agree to support open
access principles. This support includes encouraging journals to
become open access and promising to publish only in journals that
are open access.

Through its Open Access Law Program, Science Commons will work with
law schools, authors, libraries and journals to encourage open
access to legal journals and articles, and plans to expand the
Program into other areas of law publishing. Although the program’s
initial focus is on legal publishing in the United States, Science
Commons is also supporting international efforts to make legal
material freely available to all.

About Creative Commons

A nonprofit corporation founded in 2001, Creative Commons promotes
the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works—whether
owned or in the public domain—by empowering authors and audiences.
It is sustained by the generous support of the Center for the
Public Domain, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
the Omidyar Network Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation.

For general information, visit here

About Science Commons

Science Commons is a project of the nonprofit corporation Creative
Commons that works to ease unnecessary legal and logistical
barriers to the flow of scientific and academic knowledge. It was
launched in 2005 with the generous support of the HighQ Foundation
and Creative Commons. Science Commons is housed at and receives
generous support from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
where Science Commons shares space, staff, and inspiration with the
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

For general information, visit Science Commons

Contact

• Dan Hunter
• Assistant Professor of Legal Studies, Wharton School, University of
• hunterd@wharton.upenn.edu

• John Wilbanks
• Executive Director, Science Commons
• wilbanks@creativecommons.org

Press Kit

here

CREATIVE COMMONS COPYRIGHT LICENSES LAUNCH IN SOUTH AFRICA

Raul, June 2nd, 2005

San Francisco, USA, and Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA, June 1, 2005 –
Creative Commons, a non-profit organization that offers free copyright
licenses and tools to creators to make their works available on more
flexible terms, unveiled a localized version of its innovative
licensing system in South Africa last week.

With South Africa offering Creative Commons licenses tailored for the
specifics of the legal system in South Africa, Creative Commons
licenses and tools are now available a total of 18 jurisdictions. The
organization already provides copyright licenses specific to
Australian, Austrian, Brazilian, Belgian, Canadian, Croatian, Dutch,
English & Welsh, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish,
U.S., Taiwanese and Spanish law, thanks to a global network of
artists, lawyers, and technologists.

Staff at Creative Common’s offices in San Francisco and Berlin worked
with Project Leads Heather Ford and Andrew Rens as well as the LINK
Centre at the University of Witwatersrand to adapt the standardized
licenses for use in South Africa. Heather Ford is a former Reuters’
fellow at Stanford Law School and the director of the Creative Commons
South Africa project. Heather has already built an energetic creative
community in South Africa around the Creative Commons licenses.
Andrew Rens is a South African attorney, who previously taught both
intellectual property and information and communications technology
law at the University of the Witwatersrand, and led the license
drafting process.

The launch of the South African Creative Commons licenses occurred in
conjunction with a conference sponsored by the LINK Centre entitled
“Commons Sense: Towards an African Digital Information Commons.”
Project leads from Creative Commons Brazil, Ronaldo Lemos, and
Creative Commons India, Lawrence Liang, presented on the topic of
“Open Content for the Developing World.” Creative Commons CEO &
Chairman, Lawrence Lessig also presented at the conference on the
topic of the “Global Momentum towards the Commons.”

“South Africa, along with Brazil, will prove to be the one of the most
important opportunities for the spread of Creative Commons,” said
Lawrence Lessig of the South African launch, “Already the energy and
awareness is far beyond anything we could have expected.”

About the LINK Centre:

The LINK Centre is the leading research and training body in the field
of information and communications technology (ICT) policy, regulation
and management in Southern Africa.

LINK focuses on capacity building in the public sector and development
arenas through quality training, applied research and consultancy
services necessary to maximize the benefits of the Information Society
and the Knowledge Economy. In addition to hosting the South African
chapter of Creative Commons, LINK is a founding partner in Research
ICT Africa!
For general information, visit here

For information about Creative Commons, South Africa, visit
here

About Creative Commons:

A nonprofit corporation founded in 2001, Creative Commons promotes the
creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works — whether owned or
in the public domain — by empowering authors and audiences. It is
sustained by the generous support of the Center for the Public Domain,
the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network
Fund, and the Hewlett Foundation.

For general information, visit Creative Commons

Contacts:

• Andrew Rens (San Francisco)
• Legal Lead
• Creative Commons, South Africa
• andrewrens@yahoo.com

• Heather Ford (Johannesburg)
• Director
• Creative Commons, South Africa
• heather@creativecommons.org

• Neeru Paharia (San Francisco)
• Executive Director
• Creative Commons
• neeru@creativecommons.org

• Christiane Asschenfeldt (Berlin)
• Executive Director
• iCommons
• christiane@creativecommons.org

Press Kit here